{"id":16889,"date":"2012-12-19T14:13:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T19:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=16889"},"modified":"2012-12-20T09:48:30","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T14:48:30","slug":"new-city-job-pushes-start-ups-to-start-and-stay-in-raleigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2012\/12\/19\/new-city-job-pushes-start-ups-to-start-and-stay-in-raleigh\/","title":{"rendered":"New City Job Pushes Startups to Start, and Stay, in Raleigh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: In an earlier version of this post, we reported that Derrick Minor helped produce the Raleigh Innovation Summit. Instead, he helped promote the event.<\/em> <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a quiet movement happening within the Triangle to make this region one of the nation\u2019s top five hot spots for entrepreneurship and innovation.<\/p>\n

So far, it\u2019s evidenced by the fast lease-up of the HUB Raleigh co-working space on Hillsborough Street, and the commitments of fast-growing tech companies such as Red Hat and Citrix\u2019s ShareFile division to redevelop buildings in the heart of downtown Raleigh.<\/p>\n

In Durham, there\u2019s the coming expansion of American Underground, a haven for startup companies.<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s three highly ranked universities are working to spin companies out of cutting-edge research, and Research Triangle Park is reinventing itself for a new generation of high-growth businesses. Population is still growing faster here than in most cities and there\u2019s new living, restaurant and night life options downtown, an attractive asset for young talent. North Carolina also continues to rank highly among states for its business climate.<\/p>\n

But lacking has been the glue that holds it all together, a role that national experts in entrepreneurship say is necessary for high-growth startups to get the resources to flourish and create jobs, and for cities to become known as hubs of entrepreneurial activity.<\/p>\n

As cities across the nation compete to be as good a place to start a business as California\u2019s Silicon Valley, Raleigh is betting on its first-ever innovation and entrepreneurship manager to be the region\u2019s glue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Raleigh’s New Economic Job<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Name:<\/strong> Derrick Minor
\nTitle:<\/strong> Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager
\nRole:<\/strong> Retaining and helping new companies in Raleigh and helping them grow.\n<\/div>\n

Derrick Minor<\/a>, former director of downtown development for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance<\/a>, accepted the $67,000 a year economic development position in October. Different from his role at the Alliance attracting retail businesses, Minor now is focused on retaining companies in Raleigh, and helping them grow.<\/p>\n

With no budget (yet), his main responsibility, so far, is networking.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s connected Cii Technologies, a 30-year-old North Raleigh company, with a growing mobile app development division, to the entrepreneurs and software developers working at the HUB Raleigh.<\/p>\n

Another connection: Riley Life Logistics, a product fulfillment and logistics company, is now working with several young Raleigh fashion designers. Riley can help those creative people run more effective and efficient e-commerce operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaleigh has some great companies, big companies. How can we leverage those guys? How can we connect the big fish with the small fish?\u201d Minor said.<\/p>\n

Minor is mostly focused on companies innovating in information, bio, mobile and clean technology, healthcare, e-commerce and consumer products. They\u2019re companies that want to sell a product nationally or internationally, rather than a small business focused locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking, \u2018How can we help you grow, if that\u2019s your next step? Are there channel partners or mentors to meet, industries you want to target?’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He can refer tax incentive or workforce development requests to the Chamber of Commerce’s Raleigh Economic Development<\/a> Director, James Sauls.<\/p>\n

Minor is also working with area universities, Wake Tech and Wake County schools to help create a pipeline of talent for startups.<\/p>\n

A Startup Job<\/strong>
\nMinor\u2019s role will only become more clear as time goes on, said City Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin, a chief proponent of the new position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to prevent brain drain and provide the support systems and ways for students to come out of the universities and get assistance, and people in their 20s to 50s, too,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cDerrick is that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A position like Minor\u2019s isn\u2019t common within city governments. In fact, Brad Feld, a venture capitalist and author of “Startup Communities,” writes that entrepreneurs should lead the startup community, not governments.<\/p>\n

But Raleigh could be on to something if the position aligns with existing efforts of universities, startups, large corporations and nonprofits, said Daniel Isenberg, head of the Babson College Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project<\/a>. The group advises leaders around the world on policies and programs to spur entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy itself, nothing is sufficient,\u201d Isenberg said. \u201cIt really requires the vision of the entire environment to be able to make an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two examples of successful citywide efforts in this nation, Isenberg said, are in Boston and Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino worked with entrepreneurs based in the Boston Innovation District<\/a> to create a community group called Innovation District Entrepreneurs After Work, which promoted the concept of “live, work and play.” He convinced real estate developers to set aside office space for entrepreneurial companies, helping to attract MassChallenge<\/a>, a top business accelerator program and international startup competition.<\/p>\n

In Cleveland, large corporations in the private sector engaged with startups and universities and a mix of funding sources, including the state\u2019s Third Frontier innovation funding program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through his role at the Alliance, Minor has already proven to have a wide network. He\u2019s also a steering committee member for Innovate Raleigh<\/a>, a citywide initiative started last January to support the region\u2019s \u201cTop Five\u201d campaign. He also helped promote the Raleigh Innovation Summit, held in January 2012, and the Startup Summit, part of the annual Internet Summit, in November.<\/p>\n

All that is why he and this job are the next step for Raleigh, Baldwin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDerrick wrote a book of how he was going to approach this job and what he\u2019d do,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cIt was extremely impressive and demonstrated his passion for the topic. It\u2019s going to take that to put us on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of Raleigh recently created a new economic development position to help entrepreneurs and startups get off the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24062,"featured_media":16891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23],"tags":[1111,1068,927,1112],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24062"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}